MN7181 : People & Organisations : Principles & Practice in global context : Managing Diversity

Managing Diversity

Diversity implies the mixture of differences of individuals & organizational characteristics, values, beliefs, experiences, backgrounds, preferences & other all distinctive behaviors within the organization.Organizational behavior will be much wider, attractive & collaborative due to diversity within the organization & HR department should need to materialize the good effects of the workforce diversity for the betterment of the organization. 

(Source : EHS daily advisor, 2010)

What are the benefits of diversity within the organization ? 

Simply diversity will eradicate the monotonous in the work place where creates interesting working environment & culture.New employees with different background, behaviors, beliefs may bring innovative ideas, experiences in to the organization creating good employer brand. Employees with multi lingual , diverse cultural experiences would help immensely to employers when they expand organization in to various locations locally & globally.Once organization serves various types of different customers with different requirement, it is very much effective to have diverse workforce whose can identify customer needs properly & same will increase customer satisfaction as well.  

In addition following benefits also arise due to effective diversity management. 

* Increase creativity 
* Make recruitment easier 
* Avoid staff high turnovers 
* Increase employee loyalty 

(Source : Global inheritance)

Hence all employers need to identify the diversity within the workforce to effectively use them to the success of the organization. 

However managing the diversity is not an easy task for HR professionals & same has become a huge challenge as of now.But that challenge can be mitigated if management can create a diversified environment through promoting culture tolerance, open communication & conflict management system within the organization.

Eg : There are various types of employees in NDB bank belonging to different cultures, ethnicity, races, religions & they all are treated in the same way by valuing their respective cultures , backgrounds & behaviors. 

Effective strategies for managing diversity

1.Prioritize communication
Maintain proper two way communication with employees without barriers 

2.Treat each employees individually
Evaluating employees individually rather making assumptions 

3.Encourage working in diverse groups
Employees get to know each other & value their thoughts 

4.Be open minded
Accept the diversity with open arm response 

However managing diversity is not an easy task for HRM & they may find several challenges on it as follows.

- Individual vs group interest & fairness 
- Resistance to change 
- Resentment
- Group cohesiveness 
- Interpersonal conflicts 
- Layers in communication
- Competition for opportunities  

It is very much clear that diversity can make or break the organization & hence HRM need to closely deal with all diverse aspects within the organization by handling them very carefully.Diverse workforce is a sign of diverse in the world & diverse individuals or teams bring high value to organization in the current context.Most organizations are adapted to diversity & respect to the diversity will benefit the organization to have competitive edge & high productivity at the end.

By Ishan Meegaswatte

References

Anon., 2018. Global inheritance. [Online]
Available at: https://www.globalinheritance.net/about/
[Accessed 31 12 2018].

Dyson, E., 2017. People scout. [Online]
Available at: https://www.peoplescout.com/getting-right-understanding-managing-diversity-in-workplace/
[Accessed 31 12 2018].

Kilbourne, C., 2010. EHS daily advisor. [Online]
Available at: https://ehsdailyadvisor.blr.com/2010/07/5-steps-for-successfully-managing-diversity/
[Accessed 31 12 2018].